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Plants lithophytic or terrestrial, 300-600 mm tall; basal leaves c. 10 in a rosette, lorate to narrowly elliptic, shortly petiolate, concolourous green, acute, 60-150 x 12-25 mm, margins slightly undulate, cauline leaves distant, narrowly lanceolate, acute, to 15 mm long. Inflorescences densely to laxly many-flowered, to 300 x 40 mm; bracts green, thin, narrowly lanceolate, acute, to 10 mm long. Flowers lilac to white, with darker spots on all parts. Sepals subequal, subacute, narrowly ovate, 7-10 mm long; median concave; laterals oblique. Petals similar to the sepals, but somewhat smaller. Lip patent, narrowly obtriangular, 8-12 x 5 mm, 5-lobed, lobes linear to lorate, to 4 mm long; side lobes sometimes united into a single, lacerated lobe.
Terrestrial or lithophytic herb, 0.3-0.6 m high; many tuberous roots. Leaves ± 10, radical, in rosette at base of stem, lorate to narrowly elliptic, up to 60 x 150 mm, light green, glabrous, margins undulate, acute, apices recurved; cauline leaves distant, narrowly lanceolate, acute, up to 15 mm long. Inflorescence a slender, erect, lax, 50-80-flowered raceme, up to 600 mm long; flowers subsecund, lilac with darker spots. Sepals subequal, narrowly ovate, spreading, unlobed, longer than petals; dorsal sepal up to 6 mm long; median sepal concave; lateral sepals oblique. Petals unlobed, porrect, enclosing column. Lip patent, narrowly obtriangular 8-12 x 5 mm long, linear-oblong, unequally 5-lobed, spur absent. Flowering time Mar.-May.
Its affinities surely lie with S. woodii which it closely resembles but lacks a spur. Flowers in this species are white to pale pink often with a broken double line of darker pink down the centre of the lip.
